2025 Wildlife Diversity Program Annual Report
Table of Contents Program Updates - 2025 ....................................................................................................................4 BIRDS .............................................................................................................................................9 Migratory Shorebirds Return to North Carolina’s Shores! ..................................................................... 9 The Jersey Shore Flocks to NC - Banded Piping Plover Spotted in Carteret County ................................ 10 American Oystercatcher Banding ................................................................................................... 11 Locals and Visitors Intermingling at Shackleford Banks ...................................................................... 12 New Colony Discovered During Annual Wood Stork Monitoring Survey ................................................ 13 Wood Stork Trapping and Tagging to Study Their Movement Ecology........................................................14 Detecting the Elusive Black Rail Using Remote Technologies .............................................................. 15 What We Are Learning About the Elusive Black Rail From a Dry Year .................................................... 16 Wayne’s Warbler Breeding Confirmed in Brunswick and Camden Counties .......................................... 17 Final Breeding Season for the NC Bird Atlas Begins ........................................................................... 18 The Secret Lives of Breeding Birds .................................................................................................. 19 Autonomous Recording Units … Working All Night Long … ................................................................ 20 North Carolina Bird Atlas Completes Final Breeding Season ............................................................... 21 A Core Banks Atlasing Adventure .................................................................................................... 22 Preparing for Bird Nesting Season 2025, the First Season Post-Helene . .............................................. 23 Post-Helene Bird Monitoring .......................................................................................................... 24 Wood Thrush Nanotagging ............................................................................................................. 25 Motus Installations and Maintenance with the American Bird Conservancy .......................................... 26 Using Motus Stations to Document Full Annual Cycles of Songbirds .................................................... 27 REPTILES ......................................................................................................................................29 Are You GatorWise? New Outreach Program Promotes Coexistence with Alligators ............................... 29 Looking Back at Five Years of Alligator Spotlight Surveys .................................................................... 30 Working to Understand and Address Hook and Line Interactions with Sea Turtles in NC ......................... 31 Keeping Tabs on Sea Turtle Habitat ................................................................................................. 32 Earlier Nesting Peak Observed in 2025 Sea Turtle Nesting Season ...................................................... 33 Extended Non-nesting Period For a Loggerhead Sea Turtle ................................................................. 34 Searching for Herps in All the Right Places – Sandhills Ecoregion ....................................................... 35 Post-Helene Bog Restoration Work .................................................................................................. 36 Monitoring Bog Turtle Populations Post-Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina ............................ 37 Working to Restore Bogs in Western North Carolina ........................................................................... 38 Restoring Bog Habitat to Support Recovery of the Southern Lineage of Bog Turtles ............................... 39 AMPHIBIANS .................................................................................................................................40 Another Dry Winter in the Sandhills ................................................................................................. 40 Coastal Herp Staff Stay Busy with Collaboration and Cold Weather Surveys .......................................... 41 Winter Amphibians ........................................................................................................................ 42 Monitoring Day and Night .............................................................................................................. 43 Impacts to the Eastern Hellbender and Mudpuppy from Hurricane Helene and Debris Removal ............. 44 Detections of Eastern Hellbenders Post Hurricane Helene ................................................................. 46 Surveys for the Eastern Hellbender in the Nolichucky Sub-basin During the First Breeding Season Post-Hurricane Helene..................................................................................................... 48 Emerging Gopher Frog News .......................................................................................................... 49 Surveys for Gray Treefrogs and Wetland Habitat Enhancement Through Prescribed Fire ........................ 50 Studying Timber Harvest Effects on Green Salamanders and Their Micro-climate ................................. 51
2 2025 WILDLIFE DIVERSITY PROGRAM ANNUAL REPORT
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